Erie debates role of unions

Members of Local 506 of the United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers of America rally outside GE Transportation in Lawrence Park Township on April 16. The company has announced plans to eliminate 950 jobs. JACK HANRAHAN/ERIE TIMES-NEWS

Union workers sometimes made life difficult for Paul C. "Hoop" Roche, former president of Erie Plastics.

He still remembers a painful strike in 1983 that turned out the lights at his Corry plant.

But he also remembers a relationship that was mostly productive for decades as his plastics company grew into one of Erie County's largest.

As GE Transportation bargains with Local 506 of the United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers about its plan to eliminate 950 local jobs, people are taking sides. Some talk about corporate greed after it earned $1 billion in profit in 2012. Others urge union workers to take concessions and count their blessings. Some blame unions for the loss of thousands of local manufacturing jobs.

In a letter to the editor, a former Erie resident urged UE 506 to take a hard look at itself.

"Most people hate unions," she wrote.

History shows there have been some bumps in the road in union-management relations in Erie:

- Roche said he didn't understand when workers at Erie Plastics struck over a plan to impose a two-tier wage structure.

"They were fighting for the wages of people who didn't work there and would never work there if the strike wasn't settled," he said.

The union ultimately agreed to the concessions and Roche credits it with helping to maintain and grow the company for an additional 25 years.

"You can't lay all the blame at the feet of the unions," he said. "Sometimes there is bad management. We were in business for almost 50 years and we made it work for almost 50 years."

- When Steris Corp. announced plans in 2006 to move its Erie manufacturing plant to Mexico, some managers privately blamed an inflexible union. It's worth noting, though, that the company and the union signed an eight-year contract in 1999 that was praised by both parties.

- In 1946, 6,100 workers struck Erie's GE plant for 59 days. Workers settled on a 10-cent-an-hour increase for those making less than $1 per hour and a 10 percent increase for those making $1 or more per hour.

- A prolonged strike shut down Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corp.'s plant in 1987. A decade later, workers there kept the jobs when they joined AKW Ltd., a joint venture between Kaiser and Accuride.

There was speculation at the time that Kaiser was closing the plant as payback for the strike. Management rejected that suggestion, and praised workers for setting new standards for quality, productivity and safety.

Today, residents of the Erie area are collectively waiting for the outcome of the decision bargaining process at GE Transportation that will determine if the company will cut 950 jobs as planned or if concessions can reduce that number.

The wait and the stakes have reignited a debate as old as the labor movement: Do unions drive away jobs?

Erie County Executive Barry Grossman said he's tired of that argument.

"I don't want to get to the lowest common denominator," he said. "I can understand why people don't want $12 and $14 an hour jobs. I am not impressed that Caterpillar is paying $12."

Barbara Chaffee, president of the Erie Regional Chamber and Growth Partnership, said relations between local companies and their unions run the gamut.

"We have some that have had great relations moving forward and making the right decisions together for that business," she said. At the same time, "We certainly have had some tough times for labor and management. International Paper was the prime example of that."

Jim Kurre, professor of economics at Penn State Behrend and director of the Economic Research Institute of Erie, said the loss of manufacturing is less about unions and more about the rise in productivity.

"We are figuring out how to produce products with fewer workers," he said.

But unions aren't off the hook.

"If a union is effective, it manages to increase the compensation of its members and or make their jobs more secure. If a union is very successful, they are able to push their compensation above what a worker would otherwise earn," Kurre said.

That's good for the employees, he said.

And it might not damage a company that's not in an especially competitive industry.

Kurre said, "The problem is if you have a competitive industry, those higher compensation costs make the firm less competitive than those firms who don't have unions."

Tina Donikowski, an Erie native who rose through the ranks at GE Transportation to become a vice president, said in a recent opinion column that Erie's largest employer finds itself in that position today.

She said aggressive competition means GE Transportation needs to change, pointing to concessions at a GE appliance plant in Louisville, Ky., that led to expanded employment.

But that partnership came at a price for union members who accepted a two-tier wage scale in 2005 and a two-year pay freeze in 2009.

Pat Bruno, who is retired after serving as an officer for 50 years in the Erie Central Labor Council, offered no words of counsel for members of UE 506 in Erie.

He did say he's proud of the role unions have played in Erie.

"Labor unions are the ones that created the middle class in America. Before labor unions, there were the very wealthy and the working poor," Bruno said. "Workers worked 16 hours a day in companies, mines, factories and mills without benefits."

What if concessions will save jobs?

"It's very difficult to ask union members to give up benefits they worked for," Bruno said. "I found out through experience ... that if you give (management) something today, they want more tomorrow."